Saturday, 22 February 2014

on June the 28th 1970 thousands of LGBT people took to the streets of New York in what is widely recognized as the first Pride march this occurred one year after the stonewall uprising and resembled more of a protest than a parade. it is also interesting to recognize that this was actually a Liberation march not a Pride parade. today overly commercialized Pride parades are common in almost every major city in the western capitalist world complete with thuggish security guards who ruthlessly enforce the gay capitalist hegemony. the recent pride parade in Auckland was an overly commercialized gay capitalist affair with little consideration given to less well off LGBT people who still face workplace discrimination harassment on the streets and lack of access to housing. security personal preset at the parade appeared to be private contractors who were not averse to assaulting members of the public I personally saw two instances of parade security assaulting members of the public and at one stage a security person forced a Transwoman into the gutter where her shoe got caught in a storm-drain and she fell on her face.
Personally i don't think that such commercialism has much to offer LGBT people who still struggle from oppression both in public and in the workplace. I feel that a grassroots LGBT liberation movement would be a viable step towards true liberation for all LGBT people.

Monday, 10 February 2014

In my opinion there is a huge difference between a political group offering support and solidarity to the LGBT community and a political group that attends such an event in order to boost their popularity. Right wing prime mister John Key and an entourage of about 20 supporters from the National party youth wing attended the 2014 Big Gay Out festival distracting the media from the real issues facing the LGBT community. meanwhile the police dealt harshly to anyone who dared to publicly criticize the Prime Minister in front of the media. also present at the event was controversial Auckland City mayor Len Brown who also attracted protest although the police were much less interested in doing anything about it. late in the afternoon two Socialist Aotearoa comrades were attacked by police for protesting the Prime ministers presence at Big Gay Out while a third Socialist Aotearoa member who happened to be Transgender was separated from the the group where she was harassed by the police and asked to present ID to the police officer she was then deliberately misgenderd by the officer. Sadly Big Gay Out was reduced to an election year farce where the needs of the LGBT were very much a secondary concern and were completely ignored by the police present at the event.